The Country Under My Skin by Gioconda Belli is definitely the most “biographical” of all the works we have seen so far, with the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 acting as an ever present backdrop to Belli’s very eventful life. However, Belli’s passion for and dedication to the Sandinista movement – from when she first truly comes into contact with it through her advertisement colleagues until she grows disillusioned with its handling of the Nicaraguan state following the ousting of Somoza’s government – is definitely one of the key driving points in this autobiography. It also comes as a bit of a surprise considering her comfortable bourgeois upbringing, something which is frequently brought up during her time with the Sandinistas. Along with the fact that Belli led a seemingly normal life and professional existence in parallel to her revolutionary activities, she comes across as quite distant from the ideal of the revolutionary fighter whose commitment to the revolution is “total”, as embodied by Che.
However, the strength of Belli’s belief in the revolution and the importance of her role within it definitely give her credibility as a revolutionary figure, and also offered her a unique perspective on the Nicaraguan Revolution itself. Her brutal honesty in telling about her difficulties in maintaining both a stable family life and participating as much as possible in revolutionary activities, as well as her account of the mistreatments and humiliation she received for being a woman within the movement offer some insights into the complexities that can and have occurred when one lives as a revolutionary. I was also surprised by how honest she was about her own thoughts at given moments, openly describing the times in which her faith for the revolution waivered, or when she felt that she was failing her children. Belli comes across as deeply human and relatable in these moments, and it gives all the more weight to her decision to keep on working for the revolution in spite of her occasional doubts.
The end of The Country Under My Skin also provides Belli’s impressions on how and why the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Sandinistas eventually failed. She places particular emphasis on the responsibility of both the Reagan administration and the line taken by the Ortega brothers in directing the new Sandinista government. Her criticism of the United States’ blatant hypocrisy in indicting the Nicaragua’s lack of democratic institutions while simultaneously supporting neighbouring dictatorships and helping build the Contra forces is pretty difficult to argue with, and is equally valid to the case of Cuba. The Ortega brothers, in further goading Reagan were probably righteous in their ideological position, but in practice their actions only served to exacerbate the impact of the United States actions against Nicaragua, worsening the situation for its citizens and setting up the Sandinistas downfall. This critique of the revolution outlines both the difficulty of building a new revolutionary society and the danger that US imperialism posed any of its adversaries in Latin America at that time.
Yes, it is interesting how Belli looks at the revolution both through its success at times, and its downfalls, looking at both sides with a critical perspective. By this I mean that we do not really see that critical perspective in Che for example when he fails. Often he would account the downfalls as a result of logistics, lack of resources, planning, or that the other side was larger in number. In a sense he is not really owing the blame to himself or his leadership. However, Belli seems to account the revolution’s mistakes as coming from within each individual. In this regards she is very honest, and maybe this is because she is a women, and a feminist at the same time. The other figures we have seen have had to exhibit this sense of machismo, leadership, and therefore the prospect of being wrong is not acceptable. I think Belli’s emotions in this book really do tell us a lot more about revolutions, than for example the others we have read.
I like that you mention how the U.S. intervention was essentially responsible for the downfall of the Nicaraguan revolution. In today’s age U.S. imperialism is one of the greatest threats to working class movements and revolutions.